The present invention relates to circuits and systems incorporating solid-state devices referred to herein as xe2x80x9ctranspinnorsxe2x80x9d and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,929,636 and 6,031,273, the entire disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. More specifically, the present application describes a transpinnor-based switch and various applications thereof.
The vast majority of electronic circuits and systems manufactured and sold today are based on semiconductor technology developed over the last half century. Semiconductor processing techniques and techniques for manufacturing integrated circuits have become increasingly sophisticated resulting in ever smaller device size while increasing yield and reliability. However, the precision of such techniques appears to be approaching its limit, making it unlikely that systems manufactured according to such technique will be able to continue their historical adherence to Moore""s Law which postulates a monotonic increase in available data processing power over time.
In addition, as the techniques for manufacturing semiconductor integrated circuits have increased in sophistication, so have they correspondingly increased in cost. For example, current state-of-the-art integrated circuits require a large number of processing steps to integrate semiconductor circuitry, metal layers, and embedded circuits, an issue which is exacerbated by the varied nature of the materials being integrated. And the demand for higher levels of complexity and integration continue to grow. The technical difficulties facing the semiconductor industry are well summarized by P. Packan in the Sep. 24, 1999, issue of Science magazine beginning at page 33, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
Finally, there are some applications for which conventional semiconductor integrated circuit technology is simply not well suited. An example of such an application is spacecraft systems in which resistance to external radiation is extremely important. Electronic systems aboard spacecraft typically require elaborate shielding and safeguards to prevent loss of information and/or system failure due to exposure to any of the wide variety of forms of radiation commonly found outside earth""s atmosphere. Not only are these measures costly in terms of dollars and weight, they are not always completely effective, an obvious drawback given the dangers of space travel.
In view of the foregoing, it is desirable to provide electronic systems which facilitate higher levels of integration, reduce manufacturing complexity, and provide a greater level of reliability in a wider variety of operating environments.
According to the present invention, electronic circuits and systems based on an all-metal solid-state device referred to herein as a xe2x80x9ctranspinnorxe2x80x9d address the issues discussed above. More specifically, an embodiment of the present invention provides a switch based on the transpinnor which may be used in any larger circuit in which a conventional switch might be employed, e.g., a field programmable gate array.
Thus, the invention provides a transpinnor switch having a network of thin-film elements in a bridge configuration, selected ones of the thin-film elements exhibiting giant magnetoresistance. The switch also includes at least one input conductor inductively coupled to a first subset of the selected thin-film elements, and a switch conductor inductively coupled to a second subset of the selected thin-film elements for applying magnetic fields thereto. The switch is configurable using the switch conductor to generate an output signal representative of an input signal on the input conductor. The switch is also configurable using the switch conductor to generate substantially no output signal regardless of whether the input signal is present.
According to another embodiment, a transpinnor switch includes a network of thin-film elements in a bridge configuration, each of the thin-film elements exhibiting giant magnetoresistance. First and second ones of the thin-film elements form a first path, and third and fourth ones of the thin-film elements form a second path in parallel with the first path. The switch also includes at least one input conductor inductively coupled to the first and third thin-film elements, and a switch conductor inductively coupled to the first and fourth thin-film elements. The network is configurable using the switch conductor to remain resistively balanced without regard to an input signal on the input conductor, and wherein the network is also configurable using the switch conductor to become resistively unbalanced in response to the input signal.
According to various embodiments, one or more transpinnor switches of the present invention is employed to implement various programmable devices and systems including, for example, field programmable gate arrays and field programmable systems-on-chips.
A further understanding of the nature and advantages of the present invention may be realized by reference to the remaining portions of the specification and the drawings.